The present invention relates generally to the use of modular units with a core device in communication with a user computing device. More particularly, this invention pertains to a modular multi-functional device, method, and system for interacting with and acquiring information related to the surrounding environment.
There are at present an extremely large number of applications being implemented on mobile computing devices such as cell phones, and that number is growing rapidly in view of the changing needs and desires of the marketplace. However, there are only a limited number and types of sensors, controllers, and actuators on a cell phone. For example, cell phones can typically only measure location, motion, orientation, ambient light, sounds, and video. Thereby, the applications on cell phones can only take advantage of existing hardware on the cellphone.
External sensors can be provided or otherwise implemented to communicate wirelessly with cellphones and thereby expand the hardware capabilities of the cellphone. However, the currently available external sensor devices are purpose built and application specific. There is no universal external device with plug-and-play ports to allow interchangeable plug-in sensor, controller, and actuator modular units.
Further, all current wireless devices for cell phones contain a fixed set of functionality and typically are application specific. If the user wants to utilize a different set of sensors or actuators, then he/she has to use a completely different device.
It would be desirable in view of present needs and the known architecture for executing mobile applications to provide a system with a common set of basic components requiring only the application specific plug-in modular unit to differ from application to application.